Banks offer a lot of services to their customers, and one of them is fraud protection, so if your card is used without your permission, you can usually get your money back right away.

What would you do if you worked for a bank and a customer claimed fraud on her card, but then she realized that it was her son who had used it to buy video games, and she wanted the video games back for him?

That is what happened to the customer service professional in this story, but the customer didn’t want to cancel the fraud claim, and thought the bank could give her son the games back.

This is why you don’t give your children access to your credit card and no, I can’t give your kid his games back.

The backstory: I got the second call about this customer’s issue.

Fraud happens sometimes, no big deal.

What had prompted her to call in the first case was she had seen charges for “Steam” on her credit card statement and thought it was fraud.

For those who don’t know, Steam is a computer game shop/platform/game developing company, very popular with PC gamers.

Easy enough, this type of thing happens all the time.

So, she had told the first CSR to lodge a fraud case and request a refund on the transactions.

The CSR dutifully did so, gave the customer a reference number, ordered her a new card, advised her the turn around time and ended the call.

Oh boy, what now?

My call took place ~2 hours later. I’ll try to summarize the conversation as best I can remember.

Me: Thanks for calling (bank) you’re speaking with *name* how can I help you?

Her: Hi yes, I called earlier because I didn’t recognize some charges on my card and your staff member told me it was something to do with gaming and I don’t play games so I got them to request a refund.

Me: Uhuh

LOL. I’m sure this happens all the time.

Her: Well, I’ve just figured out it was my son who was using my card. I let him buy one game but apparently my card details got saved and he just kept buying.

But now he’s very upset. And I’m hoping your can help. Apparently all of his games are now gone.

Not sure how this is the bank’s problem.

Me: I’m sorry? His games are gone?

Her: Yeah, all of the games have been removed from his computer.

Once the fraud claim is canceled, she can work with Steam to get the games back.

Me: It sounds like Steam has blocked your son’s account because of the fraud refund request we would’ve sent them. Did you want me to cancel the request now you know what the transactions weren’t fraud and we’re made by your son?

Her: No, can’t you just give my son his games back?

This should be pretty simple.

Me: Well now that you know your son made the purchases and it sounds like Steam has blocked your son’s account, I dare say the best thing for us to do is cancel the request and have your son contact Steam to have his account re-instated.

Her: But I didn’t authorize the charges! ALL of his games are gone! I shouldn’t have to pay for this!

She just wasn’t getting it.

We went around and around on this point for about 5 minutes before I said.

Me: I understand you’re upset and your son is upset, but there are ONLY two options here. Either we keep the fraud case going and your son likely won’t get access to his Steam account again or we cancel it and your son contacts Steam to explain what’s happened and hope they reactivate his account.

I can’t give your son his games back, that’s going to be up to Steam and what you decide to do.

Of course, she blames the bank.

She muttered something about unhelpful customer service and hung up.

I don’t know if she ever cancelled the fraud case or if it was successful or if her son ever got his Steam account back, but I sure as heck left detailed notes on the request stating the customer recognized the charges as ones made by her son but still wanted to continue with the case.

This is very true.

Moral of the story, kids are idiots, don’t give them access to your credit card or you’ll end up with charges for stuff you didn’t even knew existed.

It is always crazy how people will blame a bank or other company for a problem that they (or in this case, their children) directly caused.

Let’s see what the people in the comments think about this.

LOL, at least this mom knew where the problem was.

It doesn’t work that way lady.

It really isn’t that complicated.

This is a much safer option.

Too many people are entitled these days.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.